chooksRCute Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 It helps with tomatoes if you remove most of the leaves in late August early September. We did this before we went away on 6th and a week later a lot had ripened. I usually remove the leaves in stages as they start to look tired from the bottom up. Then I cut the tops off the plants and just leave the top leaves in place. Thanks Chickencam, it's really helped them ripen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Also hold the water from the toms - it encourages ripening and makes them sweeter still. Seems to have worked here. My peppers are also ripening now. Have some pretty red ones. I have no idea what my celeriac is doing but the leaves are looking very healthy! Had a look at Laverstoke's celeriac and they have tiny ones, so I'm thinking if I get golf ball sized I'll be lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Here's something to make us all jealous. Yesterday we went to look at a house here in Portugal with a third of an acre plot. In no order, this is what I saw: strawberries, raspberries, lemon verbena, mint, something looking like broad beans, taller green beans, cabbages, tomatoes (a forest), aubergines (ditto), squashes and pumpkins, the potatoes and onions had been lifted and were drying/keeping in the store. There were a dozen olive trees, a huge lemon, an orange, a couple of apples, a pear, a cherry, a peach, an apricot, a tangerine, the biggest table grapes I have ever seen, plus wine grapevines. All the land was ploughed, but only about one quarter of it was being used. The crumbliest soil in the world Plenty of lovely roses too There was a well with a pump, a water tank, and hosepipes all over the place. It was a gardener's delight, but slight shame about the house/location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Ahhh that paints a perfect picture in my mind! Going to harvest some of the peppers tomorrow. Still a few toms on the vines too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Toms nearly all gone but the peppers are coming on really lovely - surprising for so late in the month. Still some left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 finally picked the apples Friday afternoon mostly a really good crop lost some good cookers that should have been picked last week but the newton wonder has finally come good so that's made up for the other loss and the 2 very large Greensleaves are a nice bonus. I just need to cure the bitter pit that's affecting the Ashmead's Kernel and some of the Newton wonder again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Winter onion sets (Senshyu Yellow) are in and so is some garlic (Solent Wight). Garlic already shooting up. I've protected them with a "tent" of fleece just to get them off to a good start. Finished all the carrots now and they were fantastic. Will definitely have a go next year. I just wonder if the parsnips did the same! Still a few peppers in the greenhouse but nearly all cooked now. Did wonder about putting a couple in the propagator and keep them going over winter. Won't be long before we start sowing again! Leeks are getting bigger and shall be tackling the sprouts. Gave some cabbage to the girls - blooming ungrateful minxes - they turned their noses up at the good green stuff! Yes it did have a fair few holes from caterpillars though. OH has been making a variety of soups with the rhubarb chard and they've been lovely. Just right for this weather. I'm looking outside and wondering if my fleece "tent" is still in the garden!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 The pidgeons have flattened my onions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 The remaining veg seem to be managing breast stroke quite well at the moment - even though they are in raised beds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 I'm looking after a neighbour's chooks and to rescue some glugs which were floating about on the water earlier this week - the rain has been unbelievable Although I don't have anything much growing here in the UK (although the rhubarb has been up for a month) I have been collecting the odd raspberry till a few weeks ago and looking at my neighbour's plot. He has a half bed of leeks, with quite a few already gone to seed, and a cage full of sorry looking kale - its the pesky pigeons. He has a bit of rainbow chard, which looks good (shame I don't like it much!), and some sprouts, most of which have been used already. On the fruit side, he has a row of mature blackcurrant bushes which apparently outperformed themselves this year, and a very old line of raspberry canes which have been on the move for years. Some of them are in my garden and make an interesting looking/smelling/eating hedge along with a great old white rose! But the best thing was I discovered a thicket of raspberries around a small pond he has, next to wooden seat, overlooking a field which has various animals in it over the year. Can you think of anything nicer in the summer, plucking fresh rasps whilst admiring nature Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Now that sounds idyllic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Onions and garlic now recovering - fleece removed by wind and not bothered to put it back seeing as it's not too bad and they are too big to be trampled now. Harvesting leeks - the rest will be harvested this weekend and frozen before they start to send up flower stalks and because I need a place for the parsnips! The propagator is set up in the greenhouse ready to start late sowings. I've put all the onion sets into modules on Sunday and now they are all romping away. I put covers over them at night because I found Mou Sie Tung had squirrelled a little onion into a nest - but it wasn't from the cells! Mou Sie Tung is going to be sorted out if she pinches any more of my stuff. I guess she's happy to snatch up birdie food that they've missed - she doesn't get any at night time that's for sure because it's taken out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 I've got 3 types of beetroot up 4 of cabbage the leeks are just starting to show all just in the greenhouse unheated plus the onions and shallots (both seeds) plus the petunias in the propagator are just showing again unheated and all sown Easter weekend all of my seed spuds went in either the weekend before Easter or Easter weekend just got my heritage ones to pot up plus I've got some trail ones I'm waiting for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Tomatoes (gardeners delight) germinated indoors and are now 3 inches tall and in a plastic unheated greenhouse. In there with them are leeks which are a couple of inches tall, sprouting broccoli which is just starting to grow its second proper leaves and a couple of trays of sweet peas just germinating from saved seed (the last things my grandad had growing before he died). Outside I have peas about 5 inches tall and really needing to be planted out, and one lot of onion sets about six inches tall and also needing to go into the ground. Potatoes (Jazzy, Setanta and something else!) have all been in a couple of weeks but no sign of then yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 We finally did our first push on the allotment today, cleared and rotovated a good proportion of it with a view to getting spuds and carrots in this week and the broad bean plants from the greenhouse in the ground too. We have been crazily busy with work until now then had a few days away. It was lovely to start knocking it into shape in the sunshine this morning . I have also sorted all of the seeds to will be sowing like mad this week. We had a tumbler tomato plant about a month ago but I think it got to cold next to the kitchen window one night and gradually shrivelled up over the next few days. We bought another larger one which we planted straight into a hanging basket and it has survived out holiday and is growing well in the greenhouse . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted April 28, 2016 Author Share Posted April 28, 2016 We have been back in Portugal for a week and a bit. Last week was cold, with incessant low cloud and rain. Apparently it's been the wettest March for 30 years and the fruit trees are shocking. The peach, which had 400 fruit last last year, has about 20 fruitlets and a ver light cover of leaves, 80% of which have peach leaf curl. If you saw it, you would condemn it the only saving grace is that it looked nearly as bad 4 years ago and recovered. Our neighbour says all the local trees are the same. The plums are covered in leaf so you can't see the branches.....but neither can you see much fruit either the cherries are less forward than normal, but have perked up just in the past week, I think the crop will be OK, if not great. Being later to flower I think the quince and apples will be OK. On the plus side, I have the largest patch of lemon thyme, and a mint hedge the sun has come out since Saturday, and the flower seeds I sowed at the weekend in trays under plastic are already up which is miraculous, they have outside in the warm during the day, the sun is behind plenty of cloud so they don't scorch. I will buy in tomato and pepper plugs, and wait for the sweet corn, courgette, chilli, lettuce and basil to germinate. I am also taking cuttings of rosemary and lavender. Too many seeds not enough trays but the best news is that I have got a digging fork from the UK so currently we are enjoying a carpet of wild flowers safe in the knowledge I can easily dig them over in this light stony soil, in a couple of weeks. I have 4 advance beds at the ready, but one is already full of summer bulbs and tubers. It's too late to put in any more fruit trees, they will have to wait for the Autumn. I watched a neighbour plant about 100 potatoes at the weekend, I can't bring myself to engage with the work, spuds are excellent and cheap to buy here, although new potatoes are not common, at least not boiled with mint. You either have plain boiled potatoes which are large so I presume they are mostly main crop, this is the only accompaniment for fresh fish, you never have any other form of spud. If you prefer meat then you may have chips (in my view they are the best in the world, bar none) or small pots cooked whole, in their skins, in the oven. It's all very, very, traditional I know it's super cold in the UK - has that set you back or given you any unexpected challenges? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 it's cold but not super cold at least not in the west mids trouble is it variable, I'm about a month behind in the greenhouse with some stuff but that's because I could get motivated brassicas have done really well 100% germination and a fast germination onions are a bit of a mixed bag but the leeks have germinated well same with the sweet peas petunias and pansies both from last years seed tomatoes on the other hand are terrible 6 out of 25-30 varieties have germinated and their all from old seed at least 2 are 5 years old the sunflowers have started to come through in the last 2 days I got of my seed spuds in on time just got to finish my 'specials' but the rain last weekend got in the way and I think it will this weekend as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clucker1 Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 When can you plant sunflowers out? I'm not sure if they are frost tender. Mine are in small pots with the leaves just starting to yellow which I think is them saying "get me out of here!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Bit early for sunflowers. Still getting frosts so they'd not do well unless you protected them with fleece over the top of a cloche for good measure! I'm also very late with my sowings. I did think we'd have a cold snap but I didn't think it would be now! But the toms, peppers and onions are coming on and today I sowed the parsnips. Not sure what to think about this year's harvest - if any. The weather is so changeable at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted April 29, 2016 Share Posted April 29, 2016 I start sunflowers of in 3" full size pots not the half size ones about mid April and plant them out late May early June I don't plant anything out until then other than spuds and parsnips but I've not started them yet the weather's about what I expected possibly a little better this years harvest stands every chance of been poor and late and I think it could be a bad year for spuds I half expect blight will be bad and early Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 All the leeks have been harvested now. Some frozen and some made into leek and potato soup - lots frozen there too. Celeriac has also gone in the soup. All the onions have been planted out and are currently under some enviromesh for a bit of protection. We've had a few hard frosts lately and minus temperatures at night so reluctant to do anything much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted May 6, 2016 Share Posted May 6, 2016 the difference a couple of good days of sunshine can do yesterday morning I'd got vertically no blossom on the cherry trees and only partly opened buds on the early flowering apple trees and sad looking leaves on the Apricot now the Cherries are a mass of white 2 of the apples are covered in white and pink flowers one's started to flower today and the Apricot leaves are now green and the rest of the buds have started to come to life and another 3 tomato seeds germinated today only took 5 weeks that's about 1/6th of the seeds I sowed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 We have just come out of 7 days of constant rain and cool temps. It's unheard of for this time of year, and April has been the wettest on record, following the wettest March for 30 years, so I am guessing May might hold some sort of record too. I counted 6 peaches on the tree, instead of 400 last year. The other 2 peaches literally don't have a single fruit. One Apple managed to blossom during a warm week, but the other one got caught in the wet and has virtually no fruitlets- I saw the other thread on blossom, and here at least, rain is a massive factor. I planted out a dozen toms in the warm spell before the deluge, now some individual individual branches are rotting off, the plants are 6 inches high, do you think I should pull them up and start again with plugs which are easy to find or wait and see? Despite our excellent drainage I could see the water pooling around the plants, as I planted them in slight depressions to conserve moisture (!) We are back in a warm spell, set to continue for at least a week so I am mildly hopeful but their roots might have been drowned. I'd also planted a couple of olives, an apricot, a new peach, an orange and some physalis just before the incessant rain, I hope they will survive, but not sure they will thrive, for this year anyway. The only good news I have is that the lemons are prolific and beginning to come off easily, indicating they are ripe. Plus the jasmine is still blooming, far later than usual, alongside the orange blossom, it smells heavenly here if you like that heavy scent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 I would think that the rain will settle the new plants in well and the warmth will now kick them into growth. We started late this year, no point in going too early if it is cold. We have an unheated greenhouse one small heated propagator and a larger old one which barely gets warm, so tomatoes were very late. One variety, Strillo, germinated quickly as strong plants but everything else was very slow. I thought the slow ones had failed but the warm weather brought them on, they were only ready to prick out this weekend, so I now have some tiny Tumbling Tiger plants, hopefully they will give us a nice late crop. We have bought 5 plants this year which in some ways is nice because we have a good range of varieties now. We reglazed our greenhouse last week too with new double wall polycarbonate sheets, it is so light in there now, might explain what everything was slow as well as the cold and why the tomatoes were disappointing last year . The allotment is getting there too, best row of peas that we have had in years and carrots have germinated really well too as have the spring onions, radishes are struggling though, they didn't like the sudden heat. Planted up loads of flower pots and baskets last weekend too . Our apple blossom was stunning but very short lived. Haven't looked at the pear but we have quite a few plums set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted May 18, 2016 Share Posted May 18, 2016 chickencam it's interesting you say your apple blossom was short lived mines been the opposite as is the cherry blossom with the tomatoes I'd be inclined to question the potting compost over the light level in the green house if they didn't grow well or the access for bees and pollinators if they didn't fruit well as for this years tomato's poor/late germination I've put that down to cold nights we had 2 warm nights about 2 weeks back that made a real impact on the tomato seeds I've had more germinate since then than the whole of April including some rogue seeds in the potting compost around some OKA that I've got in pots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
